140 sickly cats found at a home in suburb

More than 140 cats, many of them dead or diseased, were removed last week from a Vernon Hills home strewn with garbage and animal waste, officials said Thursday.

The scene was "just brutal," said Dale Galassie, head of the Lake County Health Department.

"There were animal feces throughout the house--months and months of garbage piled up," Galassie said. "One hundred thirty cats over four days were taken out [and] there were probably 15 or so dead or decomposing cats ... As you can imagine, the smell was unbelievable."

About half the cats had to be euthanized, but about 70 were taken to an adoption shelter.

Lake County has several similar cases each year, but typically only 15 to 20 animals are found, Galassie said. This was the worst in at least 15 years, and possibly the most animals ever discovered in a home, he said.

It took two animal wardens several days to remove all of the pets, which also included two guinea pigs, a rabbit, a chinchilla and a parakeet, he said.

Vernon Hills police went to the two-story house in the 0 to 99 block of Brook Hill Lane on Nov. 10 after neighbors complained about cats in surrounding yards. After talking to the owner and taking in the scene, police called the health agency, said Officer Kim Christenson, a department spokesman.

Vernon Hills authorities barred the owner, a 47-year-old woman with two high school-age daughters, from living in the home. With extensive cleaning and rehabbing, it can be made habitable again, said Building Commissioner Vernon Gerth.

The woman, whom authorities declined to name, has not been charged with a crime, Christenson said. Police referred the case to the state Department of Child and Family Services but are not conducting a criminal investigation, he said.

Vernon Hills has an ordinance allowing only three pets per household, but the woman may not be cited, Gerth said.

"I don't know that at this juncture," he said. "This is more of a situation that we want to correct the problem. ...We want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Animal hoarding, defined roughly as acquiring a large number of animals and not caring for them, is against state law. Anyone convicted may be required to undergo mental-health treatment.

The cats were in bad shape, said Gail Donahue, director of the Orphans of the Storm shelter in Riverwoods, where they were taken.

Some were missing eyes, others had fatal diseases such as feline leukemia, and nearly all were badly infested with fleas, she said. The 70 available for adoption were spayed or neutered, treated for fleas and vaccinated, she said.

"We encourage people to come out and help us--the place is full of cats," Donahue said. "Everything from young kittens 8 weeks to 10-plus years. Everything--every color," especially Siamese mixes.

"Really, a lot of beautiful cats," she said.

Adoption information is available at 847-945-0235.

Across the street from the woman's house, Ed Horvath said the cats had been a nuisance for years, polluting yards and children's sandboxes with waste.

Horvath, 40, said he and the woman have lived in the neighborhood for a decade and in the last few years she had become more reclusive and her behavior more erratic. When people complained to her about the cats, she said she only had a couple of cats in the house and the rest were not hers, Horvath said.

"The more people tried to help, the more she kept to herself," he said.

His thoughts were with the two girls, who were well-known in the neighborhood.

"I'm happy the cat problem is finally gone, but it's still a sad story," he said. "You don't know how someone's life can go so wrong."